May 11

May 11 Preview | Dungeon Golf Playtest - My Cup Of Tee

Dungeon Golf asks the age-old question of what happens if you mix Zelda's dungeon-crawling structure with Mario Golf's party sports gameplay. Developed by Ant Workshop, a brief trailer and a (mostly) hands-off demo during W.A.S.D. 2023 caught my eye, promising competitive shenanigans and a colourful cast that wouldn't look amiss in a Dungeons and Dragons session. Now, after spending some time with the public playtest, it's looking promising.

I hate it when this happens out on the links.

Only one course and four playable characters are available during this playtest, but I enjoyed what I've seen so far. Between the skeletal golfers, young wizards, frog bards or hench barbarians, there's a decent variety of fantasy characters mixed with the golfing pastiche and everyone has individual stats for power and accuracy. The lack of customisation options felt like a missed opportunity as I'd love to replace my wizard’s hat with a paddy cap or give my bard an argyle sweater. However, the sponsor system provides welcome perks like using abilities over longer distances.

Once you're in a game, Dungeon Golf presents your average arcade golf experience in many ways, forgetting the fantasy setting, explosive barrels, drawbridges and moving walls. You're still teeing up, putting ever closer to the hole, and hopefully scoring under par. Whoever achieves the least strokes (behave) after six rounds wins.

Taking shots is straightforward and pushing the analog stick back gives you more power, as an arrow indicates. However, more power means less accuracy, visualised by these arrows widening at intervals, so shot timing is critical. You can adjust your ball's trajectory mid-shot for slightly improved accuracy, though be careful where it lands. Monsters roam these links and can be killed if the ball hits them, which earns an extra shot. However, if you land too close and don't hit them, they'll smack it somewhere across the dungeon and usually away from the hole.

When you think about it, golf and friendship is the real magic, or whatever…

Alongside defeating monsters, hitting treasure chests rewards you with mana for charging an ability bar, and everyone has two unique abilities. For example, Yeetbollur the Barbarian can smash the ball with a low accuracy but high power, making her immune to shot penalties. While Jimmy Fibula the skeleton can lob his leg in a straight line, damaging monsters and knocking back any players in range. Super abilities require a full mana bar and offer more powerful skills like Furious Leaper, letting you jump towards other players or monsters, dealing damage and/or knocking them back. It's a fun system that helps drive Dungeon Golf's competitive nature, turning the tide of battle in a pinch.

We've seen similar spins on logic-defying mini-golf before but Dungeon Golf puts its fantasy setting to good use. There's a fun creativity to these level designs, and across six rounds, I enjoyed playing this with friends. The game's writing also helps elevate the experience further, boosted by ESPN-style commentators who won't stop judging your every move. Despite being freed from the shackles of reality, Dungeon Golf isn't trying anything too out there but for anyone looking for a competitive game night experience that isn't too complicated for its own good, it seems promising. Given the playtest's limited scope, I can't say whether it will hold up for repeated sessions, but I'm excited to find out with the full release.